Printing device control apparatus and method

ABSTRACT

The object of the invention is to automatically select an optimum printing device according to the characteristics of a page in units of pages to print the page, thereby reducing the load on the operator in print processing. For this purpose, it is determined in units of pages whether data to be printed contains color information. If color information is present, a color flag is set to ON. When the color flag is ON, print data prepared and developed in a page buffer is sent to a color printer. When the color flag is OFF, the print data prepared and developed in the page buffer is sent to a monochromatic printer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relate to a printing device controlapparatus and method and, more particularly, to an apparatus and methodof controlling a plurality of printing devices.

[0002] Printing devices use various printing schemes includingelectrophotography (laser beam printer) and ejection of ink droplets ofa printer (ink-jet printer).

[0003] Generally, a laser printer is suitable for monochromatic, i.e.,black-and-white printing, and the print quality of black and whiteportions is high. In addition, the laser printer has high speed. On theother hand, an ink-jet printer is quitted to printing color image,though its speed is lower than that of the laser beam printer.

[0004] When a document is to be prepared by a document processingapparatus (including a personal computer), often almost all pages aremonochromatic, and only several pages require color printing.

[0005] In this case, as color page portions are present, the operatorperforms operations to output the entire document to a color ink-jetprinter for printing, or to output only the color page portions of thedocument to the color ink-jet printer and thereafter print the remainingmonochromatic pages with a laser beam printer dedicated to monochromaticprinting.

[0006] In the former case, the operator need to perform the operationonly once because the printing operation is completed with only oneprinting instruction. However, with the color ink-jet printer, a longtime is required to complete printing of all pages.

[0007] In the latter case, if the apparatus itself has only one printerinterface, switching connection of the two printers is necessary, andthe printing instruction must be given at least twice. Even if theapparatus has two printer interfaces, the printing instructions muststill be given at least twice. This also applies to a case in which theprinters are connected to a network, and the color ink-jet printer andmonochromatic laser beam printer on the network (or one of the printersis a local printer) perform print processing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] The present invention has been made in consideration of the aboveproblem, and has as its object to provide a print control apparatus andmethod of automatically selecting an optimum printing device accordingto the characteristics of a page to be printed in units of pages toprint the page, thereby reducing the load on the operator in printprocessing.

[0009] To achieve the above object, according to the present invention,there is provided a print control apparatus for performing distributedprinting using a plurality of printing devices having different printingcharacteristics, comprising:

[0010] determination means for receiving data to be printed from hostprocessing and determining characteristics of the data in units ofpages;

[0011] selection means for selecting one of the plurality of printingdevices in accordance with a determination result from the determinationmeans; and

[0012] sending means for sending data of one page determined by thedetermination means to the selected printing device.

[0013] According to a preferred aspect of the present invention,preferably, the apparatus further comprises first setting means forsetting whether a replacement page is to be inserted, second settingmeans for setting a printing device for printing the replacement page,and second sending means for, when insertion of the replacement page isinstructed by the first setting means, and the data of one page is to besent to the sending means, sending data of the replacement page to theprinting device set by the second setting means. With this arrangement,sorting of printouts which have been subjected to distributed printingin units of pages is facilitated.

[0014] The second sending means may send the data of one page which issent to a printing device which is not set by the second setting meansto the printing device set by the second setting means. With thisarrangement, a printing device prints all pages while the other printingdevice prints only replacement pages. Although the output forms aredifferent, pages to be replaced are obvious.

[0015] The second sending means may count the number of pagescontinuously sent to a printing device which is not set by the secondsetting means and send data corresponding to a count result to theprinting device set by the second setting means. With this arrangement,the recording medium is not wasted.

[0016] The printing characteristic represents whether the printingdevice is capable of color printing, the determination means determineswhether the data in units of pages contains information associated withcolor, and the selection means selects color printing when theinformation associated with color is present and monochromatic printingwhen no color information is present. With this arrangement,satisfactory printouts can be obtained for both monochromatic and colordata at a high speed and low cost.

[0017] Other features and advantages of the present invention will beapparent from the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate thesame or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information processing apparatusaccording to the first embodiment;

[0019]FIG. 2 is a view showing a network configuration of the firstembodiment;

[0020]FIG. 3 is a view for explaining print processing including a colorpage in the first embodiment;

[0021]FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the procedures of print processingof the first embodiment;

[0022]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a color ink-jet printer of thefirst embodiment;

[0023]FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of alaser beam printer of the first embodiment;

[0024]FIG. 7 is a view showing the setting screen of a printer driver ofthe second embodiment;

[0025]FIG. 8 is a view showing a system configuration according to thethird embodiment;

[0026]FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a printer 2000 of the thirdembodiment;

[0027]FIG. 10 is a view showing a memory map on a storage medium forrealizing the first embodiment; and

[0028]FIG. 11 is a view showing an output example of a replacement pagein a modification of the first embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0029] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0030] <Description of Arrangement>

[0031]FIG. 1 shows the arrangement of a document processing apparatusaccording to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 shows that the apparatus shownin FIG. 1 as one of clients on a network is connected to the network.

[0032] Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a CPU forcontrolling the entire operation of the apparatus; 2, a ROM which storesa boot program, a BIOS, and the like; and 3, a RAM used to serve as thework area of the CPU 1 or to develop and execute an OS (including anNOS: network OS) and a program associated with document processing. Adriver program (printer driver) for printing is one of programsdeveloped in this RAM. The printer driver will be described later indetail.

[0033] Reference numeral 4 denotes an external storage unit such as ahard disk and stores the OS, the application program for documentpreparation, and the printer driver in advance.

[0034] Reference numeral 5 denotes an input unit constituted by apointing device such as a keyboard or mouse; 6, a display unit fordisplaying an edit screen or the like; 7, a network interface (networkI/F) for data transmission/reception with the network; and 8, a printerinterface (printer I/F) for connecting the apparatus to a printer (localprinter).

[0035] Referring to FIG. 2, reference numerals 10 a and 10 b denoteclient apparatuses on the network, which have the arrangement shown inFIG. 1. Reference numerals 11 a and 11 b denote local printers connectedto the clients, respectively. A print server 20 performs processing ofprinting print data sent from a client with a printer 21 connected tothe print server.

[0036] With the above arrangement, a color ink-jet printer as a localprinter is connected to each client, and a laser beam printer dedicatedto monochromatic printing and capable of high-speed printing isconnected to the print server 20. As will be apparent from the followingdescription, the present invention is not limited to this arrangement.

[0037]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the color ink-jet printer (IJRA)11 a or 11 b of this embodiment. Referring to FIG. 5, a carriage HCengages with a helical groove 5004 of a lead screw 5005 which rotatesupon forward/reverse rotation of a drive motor 5013 through drivingforce transmission gears 5011 and 5009. The carriage HC has a pin (notshown) and reciprocally moves in directions indicated by arrows a and b.An ink-jet cartridge IJC for C, M, and Y components is loaded in thecarriage HC. A paper press plate 5002 presses a paper sheet against aplaten 5000 along the moving direction of the carriage. Photocouplers5007 and 5008 serve as home position detection means for confirming thepresence of a lever 5006 of the carriage in this region to switch therotational direction of the drive motor 5013. Reference numeral 5016denotes a member for supporting a cap member 5022 which covers the frontsurface of the print head; and 5015, a suction means for drawing the airin the cap. The suction means 5015 performs suction recovery of theprint head through an opening 5023 in the cap. Reference numeral 5017denotes a cleaning blade. A member 5019 can move this blade in thefront-and-rear direction, and these members are supported by a main bodysupport plate 5018. In place of the blade of this form, a known cleaningblade can be applied to this example, as a matter of course. Referencenumeral 5021 denotes a lever for starting suction for suction recovery.The lever 5021 moves in accordance with the movement of a cam 5020engaging with the carriage, and the transmission of the driving forcefrom the drive motor is controlled by a known transmission means such asclutch switching.

[0038] Of these capping, cleaning, and suction recovery operations,desired processing can be performed at a corresponding position by thefunction of the lead screw 5005 when the carriage enters the region onthe home position side.

[0039]FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of thelaser beam printer (to be abbreviated to an LBP hereinafter) connectedto the print server 20 of this embodiment. The LBP can register acharacter pattern or form data from the print server.

[0040] Referring to FIG. 6, an LBP main body 100 receives characterinformation (character code), form information, or a macro commandsupplied from the host computer connected to the external device (theprint server 20 in this embodiment) and stores the information orcommand, prepares a corresponding character pattern or form patternaccording to the information, and forms an image on a recording papersheet as a recording medium. Reference numeral 120 denotes an operationpanel on which switches to be operated by the user and an LED displaydevice are arranged; and 101, a printer control unit for controlling theentire operation of the LBP 100 and analyzing character patterninformation supplied from the host computer. The control unit 101 mainlyconverts character information corresponding to a character pattern intoa video signal and outputs the video signal to a laser driver 102. Thelaser driver 102 is a circuit for driving a semiconductor laser 103. Thelaser driver 102 turns on/off a laser beam 104 emitted from thesemiconductor laser 103 in accordance with the input video signal. Thelaser beam 104 is deflected in the right-and-left direction by the sidesurfaces of a rotary polygonal mirror 105 which rotates at a constantspeed to scan and expose an electrostatic drum 106. With this operation,an electrostatic latent image of the character pattern is formed on theelectrostatic drum 106. This latent image is transferred onto arecording paper sheet after the latent image is developed by adeveloping unit 107 around the electrostatic drum 106 (after black toneris applied).

[0041] As the recording paper sheet, a cut sheet is used. Cut recordingpaper sheets are stored in a paper cassette 108 loaded in the LBP 100,fed into the apparatus by a feed roller 109 and conveyance rollers 110and 111, and supplied to the electrostatic drum 106. The toner imageformed on the electrostatic drum 106 by the developing unit 107 istransferred onto the conveyed recording paper sheet. Thereafter, therecording paper sheet is conveyed to a fixing unit 112 to fix the toner.Finally, the recording paper sheet is delivered from the apparatus bydelivery rollers 113.

[0042] <Description of Processing>

[0043] Next, print processing on the client side in this embodiment withthe above arrangement will be described. For the descriptiveconvenience, print processing on the client 10 a side will be describedbelow.

[0044] Generally, when the client uses MS-WINDOWS of MicrosoftCorporation as an OS (the OS is not limited to this, as a matter ofcourse), print processing is performed through a common printer driverregardless of the application (word processor application or graphicprocessing application). The printer driver converts data transferredfrom the application side through the OS into a language understood bythe printer and outputs the language data through the OS. Thisprocessing is performed in this embodiment as well.

[0045] In the printer driver of this embodiment, however, a windowscreen (not shown) for setting an environment is displayed, and thestartup program defaults to color print processing by the local printer,and monochromatic print processing by the printer 21 on the network.

[0046] Upon actually receiving a printing instruction from theapplication, the printer driver determines whether color printprocessing is to be performed (whether information designating colorsother than black and white or information intending a color image isincluded) in units of pages. If it is determined that color printprocessing is required, the locally connected color ink-jet printer 11 ais used for printing. If it is determined that monochromatic printprocessing is to be performed, print data is sent to the print server 20to cause the LBP 21 connected to the print server 20 to print.

[0047] When the client instructs printing for a document of 10 pages(the entire document does not always consist of 10 pages), and the thirdand fifth pages require color printing, print data of the third andfifth pages are sent to the local printer 11 a, and print data of theremaining pages are sent to the server 20.

[0048] As a result, the third and fifth pages are printed and outputfrom the local printer 11 a while the remaining first, second, fourthand sixth to tenth pages are printed by the LBP 21.

[0049] Since one document is printed by two printers, the positionswhere the color pages are to be inserted in the monochromatic pages areclearly indicated. Sometimes the number of monochromatic pages may besmaller. Therefore, dummy pages (replacement pages) with a predeterminedmessage indicating the insertion positions are printed on themonochromatic or color printing side.

[0050] An example in which replacement pages are inserted on themonochromatic print processing side will be described below withreference to FIG. 3.

[0051] In FIG. 3, reference numeral 40 denotes document data to beprinted. Pages 42 are color pages, and pages 41 are monochromatic. Thepages 42 are printed by the local printer 11 a, and the remaining pages41 are printed by the LBP 21. In this embodiment, the LBP 21 printsdummy pages (replacement pages) 43 each with a predetermined messageindicating that a color page is originally present at the page position42.

[0052] The user can select whether to print replacement pages uponprinting, as needed. With this processing, when both the numbers ofmonochromatic and color pages are large, the color page insertionpositions are obvious. When the total number of pages is small,confusion cannot occur. This allows effective utilization of availableresources.

[0053] <Description of Processing Contents>

[0054] The processing contents of the printer driver of this embodimentwill be described below with reference to FIG. 4. This processing startsupon receiving a printing instruction from the application.

[0055] In step S1, a predetermined menu screen is displayed on thedisplay unit 6. Whether replacement pages are to be printed, and whenreplacement page print processing is set, the replacement page insertionposition, i.e., the monochromatic printer or color printer is set by theuser on the menu screen. Generally, monochromatic print processing isfrequently performed. Therefore, default setting is made such thatdesignation of replacement page print processing enables themonochromatic printer.

[0056] Next, a page buffer is ensured in the RAM 3 to prepare print dataand cleared in step S2. A color flag (for storing information indicatingwhether the page of interest is color or monochromatic) which is ensuredin advance in the RAM 3 is initialized to OFF (set for monochromaticprint processing) in step S3, and the flow advances to step S4.

[0057] In step S4, data to be printed is received from the OS orapplication, and it is determined whether the data contains colorinformation (information other than black and white information).

[0058] If it is determined that color information is present, the flowadvances to step S5 to set the color flag to ON.

[0059] In step S6, print data based on the received data is prepared andstored in the page buffer. Processing of preparing print data is known,and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[0060] The above processing is repeated until it is determined in stepS7 that print data for data of one page is completely prepared andstored.

[0061] Upon completion of storage of print data of one page, the flowadvances to step S8 to determine the state of the color flag.

[0062] If it is determined in step S8 that the color flag is OFF (if itis determined that monochromatic print processing is to be performed),the flow advances to step S9. In step S9, the print data stored in thepage buffer is sent to the print server 20 of the network to cause theprinter (LBP 21) connected to the print server 20 to print.

[0063] The flow advances to step S10 to determine whether replacementpage print processing is set to be performed by the color printer. IfYES in step S10, the flow advances to step S11 to send replacement datato the color printer (print server 20 in this embodiment).

[0064] If it is determined in step S8 that the color flag is ON, theflow advances to step S12 to send the print data in the page buffer tothe color printer. In step S13, it is determined whether replacementpage print processing is set to be performed by the monochromaticprinter. If YES in step S13, the flow advances to step S14 to sendreplacement data to the monochromatic printer (local printer 11 a inthis embodiment).

[0065] Upon completion of printing of one page, the flow advances tostep S15 to determine whether printing of all pages is complete. If NOin step S15, the processing from step S2 is repeated to print the nextpage.

[0066] In the above processing, when the replacement page is to beprinted by the color printer, and monochromatic print data of five pagesare continuously printed by the monochromatic printer, five replacementpages corresponding in number to the monochromatic pages are printed. Ifconfirmation suffices, a message (character string) indicating insertionof five pages may be recorded on one recording paper sheet.

[0067] To realize this processing, processing of counting the number ofpages is performed in step S11 during printing of monochromatic pageswithout actually printing replacement pages.

[0068] Immediately before step S12, when the count result is not “0”,data with a message indicating replacement of the number of pagesrepresented by the count value is sent to the color printer and recordedon a recording paper sheet. The count value is reset to “0”.

[0069] Similarly, in step S14, instead of sending the print data, thecount operation is performed. Immediately before step S9, data with amessage indicating replacement of pages corresponding in number to thecount value is printed, and the count value is reset to “0”.

[0070] As a result, a page as shown in FIG. 11 is printed.

[0071] With the above processing, even when a plurality of continuouspages must be replaced, indication of replacement is recorded on onerecording paper sheet. Therefore, the resources can be effectivelyutilized.

[0072] In the above embodiment, when a replacement page is to beprinted, an appropriate message is printed. However, the presentinvention is not limited to this.

[0073] For example, in step S11, the print data stored in the pagebuffer may be output to the color printer. Similarly, in step S14, printdata except information (e.g., a command) associated with color controlin the print data stored in the page buffer may be printed by themonochromatic printer.

[0074] If only the third and fifth pages of 10 pages are color pages,and replacement pages are to be printed by the monochromatic printer,the first to tenth pages, i.e., all pages are printed by themonochromatic printer, and only the third and fifth pages which are tobe originally printed in color are printed by the color printer.

[0075] This processing copes with a case in which an original documentcontaining monochromatic and color pages is to be copied by amonochromatic copying machine to prepare a plurality of copies.Generally, when a color original and a monochromatic original are readand copied by the monochromatic copying machine, the copy result of thecolor original becomes inconveniently lighter than that of themonochromatic original.

[0076] The above modification of the first embodiment may beappropriately applied to other embodiments to be described later, as amatter of course.

[0077] In the above embodiment, one of the two printers is a local colorprinter connected to the client, and the other is a monochromatic LBP onthe network. If the apparatus itself has two interfaces, a high-speedmonochromatic printer and a slower color printer may be connected to theinterfaces, respectively. This arrangement can cope with use as astand-alone apparatus. Generally, a personal computer has a parallelinterface and a serial interface. Recent printers also have theseinterfaces or optionally have the interfaces. Therefore, the sameinterface is not always necessary.

[0078] In the above description, the printer on the network is connectedto the printer interface of the print server. However, a printerdirectly connectable to the network need not have the arrangement shownin FIG. 2.

[0079] <Second Embodiment>

[0080] In the above embodiment (first embodiment), the monochromaticprinter and the color printer interpret the same printer language forprint processing.

[0081] Today, a printer can interpret the printer language used before.However, the printer language is basically bound to expand, and theprinter may not be able to exhibit its original performance when it mustwork as the greatest common divider among different internal languages,even in printers of the same manufacturer. This is more so for differentlanguages of different manufacturers.

[0082] In the second embodiment, even in use of a different printerlanguage, the same processing as that of the first embodiment can beperformed.

[0083] Assume that a color printer as a local printer is assigned toport LPT1 of the apparatus, and a printer LBP as a network server 20 isassigned to LPT2. These printers use different languages. The colorprinter originally uses a printer driver “DRIVER_A” to prepare andoutput print data. The monochromatic printer uses a printer driver“DRIVER_B” to prepare and output print data. That is, an externalstorage unit 4 of the apparatus stores the two drivers in advance. Inthe second embodiment, a virtual driver is prepared to switch these twoprinter drivers so that the printer drivers are switched in units ofpages.

[0084]FIG. 7 shows an example of the setting window of the virtualprinter driver of the second embodiment.

[0085] As shown in FIG. 7, the local printer is assigned to port LTP1,and the actual driver name “DRIVER_A” used by the local printer is setto LTP1. The network driver LBP is assigned to LTP2, and the driver name“DRIVER_B” is set to LTP2.

[0086] By operating the OK button by an input unit 5 or the like, theset contents of this virtual driver are stored in the environment file.

[0087] When a printing instruction is actually issued, the virtualdriver starts and receives data in units of pages. The virtual driverdetermines whether the data contains information associated with color.If information associated with color is present, the “DRIVER_A” set asthe color printer is started, and data of one page is transferred to thedriver. If no information associated with color is present, the“DRIVER_B” is started, and data of one page is transferred to thedriver.

[0088] More specifically, in the second embodiment, in registration ofthe virtual printer driver, the virtual printer driver is registered asa printer driver for the color printer. If MS-WINDOWS of MicrosoftCorporation is used as the OS, metafile data is transferred from theapplication or OS upon receiving a printing instruction. Upon receivingthis data, it is determined in units of pages whether monochromaticprint processing is to be performed. If a color page is determined, theoriginal printer driver (DRIVER_A in this embodiment) of the colorprinter is started. The virtual printer driver of this embodimenttransfers the metafile data to the color printer driver as if theprinter driver were an application or OS.

[0089] If a monochromatic page is determined, the received metafile datais transferred to the printer driver “DRIVER_B”.

[0090] Subsequently, the respective drivers perform processing.Processing of transferring the metafile data to each driver may beperformed in steps S9 and S12 of FIG. 4.

[0091] With this arrangement, printers of different manufacturers can beconnected to the apparatus, and the printer functions only byregistering drivers provided by the manufacturers to the virtual driver.That is, printers can have different page languages.

[0092] When a replacement page is to be printed, metafile data forprinting the replacement page may be prepared in the virtual driver andtransferred to a corresponding printer driver. This processing may beperformed in steps S11 and S14.

[0093] <Third Embodiment>

[0094] In the above embodiments, processing on the print data sendingside has been mainly described. However, this processing may beperformed on the printer side.

[0095] This will be described below with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9 asthe third embodiment.

[0096]FIG. 8 shows the connection between a host computer and twoprinters. In FIG. 8, at least the monochromatic printer has thearrangement shown in FIG. 9. This arrangement will be described below.

[0097] In FIG. 9, reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU for controllingthe entire operation of the printer 2000 as shown in FIG. 8; 202, a ROMwhich stores operation procedures of the CPU 201 and various font data;203, a RAM used as the work area of the CPU and including a receptionbuffer; 204, a frame memory capable of developing image data of one pageor one band; 205, an interface for receiving print data from a host unit(host computer 1000 in FIG. 8); 206, an interface for sending print datato a front-end printer; 207, a printer engine for actually performingprint processing (having almost the same arrangement as in FIG. 6); and208, an operation panel.

[0098] The arrangement from the CPU 201 to the interface 206 correspondsto the printer control unit shown in FIG. 6.

[0099] In the above arrangement, print data is sent from the hostcomputer 1000 and temporarily stored in the reception buffer. If data ofone page of the print data contains no information associated withcolor, the image data is developed in the frame memory 204 and output tothe printer engine 207, thereby performing print processing.

[0100] If a page including information of color (other than black andwhite) is detected, the print data of this page is output to a front-endcolor printer 3000.

[0101] Consequently, the host computer 1000 only need to perform normalprint processing, and processing described in the first embodiment isunnecessary.

[0102] In addition, since only one interface suffices for the hostcomputer 1000, no special card need be mounted.

[0103] In the third embodiment, replacement page print processing may beperformed. Processing for replacement of continuous pages as in themodification of the first embodiment may be performed.

[0104] <Fourth Embodiment>

[0105] In the first to third embodiments, distributed print processingby two printers is performed paying attention to the characteristics ofthe printers, i.e., color or monochromatic.

[0106] Some printers (especially page printers) can have a plurality ofpaper trays and select a paper sheet designated by the host computer forprint processing.

[0107] However, many printers have only one paper tray (or cannot havetwo or more trays).

[0108] Distributed print processing may be performed using two or moreprinters each having a number of paper trays or paper sheets loaded.

[0109] More specifically, the page size for print processing is detectedin units of pages as in the above embodiments, and the detected pagesize is sent to a printer having corresponding paper sheets. For areplacement page, if the print data is larger than the paper size,reduction printing is performed. Otherwise, printing is performed in thesame size.

[0110] The present invention can also be applied to three or moreprinters.

[0111] As has been described above, according to this embodiment, theprint control method comprises the steps of designating whether areplacement page is to be inserted to complete the pages of a documentwhich is to be distributed and printed and, when replacement pageinsertion is set, designating a printing device for printing thereplacement page to be inserted, determining on the basis of thecharacteristics of print data and printing devices a printing device forprinting the print data in units of pages, printing the print data bythe printing device in accordance with the determination result,inserting the replacement page to the designated printing device whenreplacement page insertion is designated. With this method, printprocessing is performed by a printing device having a characteristicsuitable for the print data so that unnecessary print processing can beminimized. In addition, since replacement pages are inserted, thedivided and printed document can be easily sorted. When output datacontains a page number, and the order of pages is obvious withoutinserting replacement pages, replacement page insertion can be disabled.

[0112] Combination of a low-speed printer which prints less frequentlyand a high-speed printer which prints more frequently increases thethroughput of printing.

[0113] When print processing is performed in a remote place via, e.g., aWAN, and the original cannot be referred to, divided printing withoutreplacement page insertion does not permit sorting of printouts in somecases. In the present invention, the printouts can be sorted withoutreferring to the original because replacement pages are inserted.

[0114] In the above embodiments, one of the two printers is connected toa network, and the other is directly connected to the apparatus.However, both printers may be directly connected to the apparatus orconnected to a network, as a matter of course.

[0115] The present invention can be applied to a system constituted by aplurality of devices (e.g., a host computer, an interface device, areader, and a printer), or to an apparatus comprising a single device.

[0116] In addition, the object of the invention can be attained bysupplying, to a system or apparatus, a storage medium in which a programcode of software for realizing the function of the above-describedembodiment is recorded, reading out the program code stored in thestorage medium by the computer (or a CPU or MPU) of the system orapparatus, and executing the program code, as a matter of course.

[0117] In this case, the program code itself which is read out from thestorage medium realizes the function of the above-described embodiments,and the storage medium which stores the program code constitutes thepresent invention.

[0118] As the recording medium for supplying a program code, a floppydisk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magnetooptical disk, a CD-ROM, aCD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, or a ROM can be used.

[0119] The present invention incorporates not only a case =in which thecomputer executes the readout program code to realize the function ofthe above-described embodiments but also a case in which an OS(Operating System) running on the computer performs part or all actualprocessing to realize the function of the above-described embodimentswith the processing, as a matter of course.

[0120] The present invention also incorporates a case in which theprogram code read out from the storage medium is written in a memory ofa feature expansion board inserted in the computer or a featureexpansion unit connected to the computer, and thereafter, a CPU of thefeature expansion board or feature expansion unit performs part or allthe actual processing to realize the function of the above-describedembodiments with the processing, as a matter of course.

[0121] When the above storage medium is to be applied to the firstembodiment, the storage medium stores a program code corresponding tothe above-described flow chart. That is, each module shown in the memorymap of FIG. 10 is stored in the storage medium.

[0122] More specifically, the program code may comprise a determinationmodule for receiving data to be printed from host processing anddetermining the characteristics of the data in units of pages, aselection module for selecting one of a plurality of printing devices inaccordance with the determination result, and a sending module forsending data of one page determined by the determination step to theselected printing device.

[0123] As has been described above, according to the present invention,an optimum printing device can be automatically selected in units ofpages in accordance with the characteristics of the page to print thepage. Therefore, the load on the operator in print processing can bereduced.

[0124] As many apparently widely different embodiments of the presentinvention can be made without departing from the spirit and scopethereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to thespecific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A print control apparatus for performingdistributed printing using a plurality of printing devices havingdifferent printing characteristics, comprising: determination means forreceiving data to be printed from host processing and determiningcharacteristics of the data in units of pages; selection means forselecting one of said plurality of printing devices in accordance with adetermination result from said determination means; and sending meansfor sending data of one page determined by said determination means tothe selected printing device.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1,further comprising: first setting means for setting whether areplacement page is to be inserted; second setting means for setting aprinting device for printing the replacement page; and second sendingmeans for, when insertion of the replacement page is instructed by saidfirst setting means, and the data of one page is to be sent to saidsending means, sending data of the replacement page to the printingdevice set by said second setting means.
 3. The apparatus according toclaim 2, wherein said second sending means adaptively sends the data ofone page which is sent to a printing device which is not set by saidsecond setting means to the printing device set by said second settingmeans.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said secondsending means counts the number of pages continuously sent to a printingdevice which is not set by said second setting means and sends datacorresponding to a count result to the printing device set by saidsecond setting means.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein theprinting characteristic represents whether said printing device iscapable of color printing, said determination means determines whetherthe data in units of pages contains information associated with color,and said selection means selects color printing when the informationassociated with color is present and monochromatic printing when nocolor information is present.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the printing characteristic is a size characteristic of arecording medium, said determination means determines a recording mediumsize designated in units of pages, and said selection means selects aprinting device in accordance with the medium size.
 7. A print controlmethod of performing distributed printing using a plurality of printingdevices having different printing characteristics, comprising: thedetermination step of receiving data to be printed from host processingand determining characteristics of the data in units of pages; theselection step of selecting one of said plurality of printing devices inaccordance with a determination result in the determination step; andthe sending step of sending data of one page determined in thedetermination step to the selected printing device.
 8. The methodaccording to claim 7, further comprising: the first setting step ofsetting whether a replacement page is to be inserted; the second settingstep of setting a printing device for printing the replacement page; andthe second sending step of, when insertion of the replacement page isinstructed in the first setting step, and the data of one page is to besent to the sending step, sending data of the replacement page to theprinting device set in the second setting step.
 9. The method accordingto claim 8, wherein the second sending step includes sending the data ofone page which is sent to a printing device which is not set in thesecond setting step to the printing device set in the second settingstep.
 10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the second sendingstep includes counting the number of pages continuously sent to aprinting device which is not set in the second setting step and sendingdata corresponding to a count result to the printing device set in thesecond setting step.
 11. The method according to claim 7, wherein theprinting characteristic represents whether said printing device iscapable of color printing, the determination step includes determiningwhether the data in units of pages contains information associated withcolor, and the selection step includes selecting color printing when theinformation associated with color is present and monochromatic printingwhen no color information is present.
 12. The method according to claim7, wherein the printing characteristic is a size characteristic of arecording medium, the determination step includes determining arecording medium size designated in units of pages, and the selectionstep includes selecting the printing device in accordance with themedium size.
 13. A storage medium from which data is read into a memoryof an information processing apparatus and executed to performdistributed printing using a plurality of printing devices havingdifferent printing characteristics, comprising: a procedure code of thedetermination step of receiving data to be printed from host processingand determining characteristics of the data in units of pages; aprocedure code of the selection step of selecting one of said pluralityof printing devices in accordance with a determination result in thedetermination step; and a procedure code of the sending step of sendingdata of one page determined in the determination step to the selectedprinting device.
 14. A print control apparatus which interprets printdata sent from a host unit and energizes image formation means to form avisible image on a predetermined recording medium, comprising:connection means for connecting printing devices having differentprinting characteristics; determination means for inspecting print datain units of pages to determine whether the print data of one pagecontains information corresponding to said printing device connected tosaid connection means; and sending means for, when said determinationmeans determines that the print data of one page of interest containsthe information corresponding to said printing device connected to saidconnection means, sending the print data corresponding to said page ofinterest to said printing device connected to said connection means.